Plums Locally Grown Wine Dinner

-The Island Packet

The term “locavore” has started to become more and more common these days. It’s referring to the practice of eating only locally grown foods. In South Carolina, the buzzword is Palmettovore. Only eating local can be difficult, but Plums restaurant in Beaufort has been hosting locally grown wine dinners recently to prove it can be done.

Plums had its most recent locally grown dinner Tuesday. Carrie Carper from Adagio Creative was kind enough to send over the recipe for the tempura fried zucchini with palm sugar cured grilled prawns (pictured at the right). Try it out for yourself and let me know how it goes.

The next Plums dinner will actually be a beer dinner featuring Stone Brewing Co. Aug. 10. The dinner will serve as a fundraiser for the 2010 Lt. Dan Weekend.

Check out Plums Facebook page for a video of the most recent feast and the full menu. And, stay tuned for more details about the upcoming beer dinner.

Tempura Fried Zucchini and Palm Sugared Grilled Prawns with Yuzu Aioli

1 zucchini
1/2 pound jumbo shrimp
1 ounce yuzu sauce
1 cup mayo
1 cup palm sugar diluted with water 50/50
2 cups tempura batter

Slice zucchini into 1/4 inch vertical strips and marinate peeled shrimp (leaving tail on) in the palm sugar mix. Combine the yuzu sauce with mayo, add zest of one lime to the mixture and let stand for one hour.

Batter zucchini in tempura and fry. At the same time grill the shrimp for two minutes on each side, place on zucchini and drizzle with yuzu sauce.

Plums reopens with more floor space, menu additions

-The Island Packet

Plums Restaurant on Bay Street reopened last weekend after eight weeks of renovation and expansion that owner Lantz Price said gives the eatery a “vintage look with a local feel.”

Among the changes are more seating, a new oyster bar, an expanded menu, new decor and a return to the historic building’s original wooden ceilings, floors and walls, Price said.

Built in 1866, the building previously housed both Plums and the Shipman Gallery, which closed earlier this year. “I knew when that space came available I just had to grab it,” Price said. “I definitely put a lot of my emotional heart and soul into the project. … We returned the building to as much of the old character as we possibly could.”

The restaurant now has entrances on both Bay Street and the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park. Price opted for a “soft” opening and waited a week before formally announcing the reopening, giving cooks and other employees a chance to adjust to the expanded kitchen and dining areas and new dishes, he said.

So what’s new on the menu? Oysters (12 for $10) and other seafood like clams, local steamed shrimp and a Thai shrimp ceviche dish. “People are just really loving the fact that they can get 12 oysters for a reasonable price,” Price said.

With a bigger kitchen and room for a deep fryer, Plums also now serves traditional po’ boys sandwiches, he said. Some other dinner items have changed, but the “spirit” is the same, he said. “Everything has a Lowcountry feel to it,” he said.

The restaurant has been a mainstay on Bay Street for decades. Price’s family opened Plums in the historic building in 1987, and he took over ownership in 1995, he said.

Contractors gutted the building’s interior and opened the space up, creating three distinct dining areas, Price said. Some of the building’s original wood was transformed into table and bar tops, he said. He declined to say how much the renovations cost, saying only that it was worth the investment.

Beaufort’s oldest downtown restaurants is expanding

-The Island Packet

One of Beaufort’s oldest downtown restaurants is expanding to accommodate more guests and a larger menu.

Plums will close for a couple of weeks this month while workers finish renovations at 904 Bay St., which the restaurant shared with the Shipman Gallery before the art store closed earlier this year.

When the restaurant reopens in early February, guests will notice a return to the original wooden walls, ceiling and floors of the building built in 1866. It will have more seating and an oyster bar at the front facing Bay Street, among other changes, he said.

“I’ve always felt constricted, being limited to the back of the building,” Price said. “We’ve wanted the whole building for a while, and it was like a dream come true when that became possible. I can truly see the building fulfilling its potential being one big space.”

Price’s family opened Plums in the building in 1987, and he took over ownership in 1995, he said.

“We want to expose all of those layers of the past and bring the building back to the vintage look it really lends itself to,” Price said.

Plums will retain its hours, and traditional dinner items will remain. The cooking staff will have more space, enabling it to prepare additional dishes, like po’ boys, oysters, more salads and other entrees, Price said.

The existing restaurant space will continue to serve as a seating area and will accommodate a longer bar after some walls are knocked down and the kitchen is rearranged, he said. After the expansion, late-night visitors will have more room to move around when they drop by for a drink and live music.

Plums will continue selling ice cream off the menu but will eliminate its take-out ice cream bar, he said.

“It’s kind of a burden having that bar there,” he said. “It will serve us better as more seating area.”

The bathrooms will be redone in a new spot, and some decor may change, he said.

Price said he hopes the new look, style and space will make Plums not just a lunch and dinner spot, but a place for people to stop in for a glass of wine and appetizer between meals.